Questions from Bob Edgar (AUDIO)

Bob Edgar, national president and CEO of Common Cause, says it’s pretty easy to illustrate the fallout, from 2010’s Citizens United ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. “During a presidential campaign here in Wisconsin, do you like the fact that every time you turn on your television there are ten negative commercials?”

Common Cause wants government at all levels to be able to regulate money in politics – and eventually passage of a Constitutional amendment overturning Citizens United. Edgar is in the Madison area this weekend for an “All About Citizens United”conference, and I had a chance to speak with him. Here’s a question he’ll pose at the event, taking place on Saturday in Fitchburg.

“Are we ready to be the founding fathers and mothers of democracy over the next hundred years? Are we content with the government that’s evolved over that last hundred years, or do we need some refinements and reforms of government, so that we can address global warming, that we can end the poverty that kills, and that we can protect democracy in the future? How do we get, in our time, the same kind of passion that our founding fathers had in creating democracy?”